Power outage reroutes 911 calls

The Santa Clara County Communications Center suffered a power outage Wednesday night, causing 911 calls to be rerouted to San Jose police and fire dispatchers for about two hours, according to a county spokeswoman.

Emergency calls normally handled by the county, including the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Clara County Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services, were rerouted to San Jose dispatchers who relayed the information.

The outage occurred at 10:30 p.m. Power was restored about 12:45 a.m Thursday morning.

County 911 dispatchers established a command post in the center’s parking lot on Communications Hill during the outage, spokesperson Gwendolyn Mitchell told the San Jose Mercury News.

The San Jose Fire Department, sheriff’s office and EMS served as part of the command center. County dispatchers used mobile radios to communicate with personnel in the field said Mitchell.

The volume of 911 calls that were relayed to San Jose dispatchers was not immediately known. The outage cause is under investigation.